Talk:WataMote Volume 15/@comment-38754477-20190529092323/@comment-27702860-20190531080315
@Bigred0127: Maybe I'm over-reading Tamura as well. If there isn't a huge distinction between eros and agape...I can see the slightest of possibilities there. The only reason I know of agape is from reading Time Enough for Love multiple times, lul. I could bore you with too much crap from classical periods but I sometimes think it is all a bunch of guys trying to deny that the authors were homosexual or at least bisexual! Regarding the "popularity" thing, I mean in-universe. As far as Ucchi's popularity among the fandom...well, I like her a lot, so I'm not surprised others feel the same. I would hope that beyond the "fun joke" of a girl with an "emoji face" being drawn that way as a nice conceit for "appears shallow," once it became clear that she is in severe denial that readers would take some pity on her. It is a very tough situation, especially since Japan is somewhere in the 1970s where homosexual characters are still objects of ridicule and in reality still considered "wrong." You can see it in anime from, say, five years ago where it is porn for young male readers: "heh! Yuri!" Or it is "one girl is gay . . . the other is not . . . AND LOOK AT HOW HILARIOUS THE GAY ONE IS!!!!" It is getting better. As sort of a homage to this series horribly mistranslated into English as "Kiss Him Not Me" is what fans call "WataMotete" or Watashi ga Motete Dōsunda 私がモテてどうすんだ. A "rotten girl" who loves Boy Love loses weight after hiding at home for a week or so when her favorite boy is killed in a series. She gets a harem . . . blah . . . blah . . . anyways, one of them is a lesbian. She is "out" AND, here is the point, the other "rivals" see her as just another rival. The fact that she is a lesbian is not made as a "joke" by any of them, the series, or even the Girl in Question. Thus WataMote. Whatever Uchi is--bi/lesbian/curious--she has been treated with some respect. Her misunderstanding of Tomoko is "funny" but her interactions and disappointment have not been funny nor meant to be funny. I do not think anyone laughed much during Chapter 152, for example. Oh noes! Wall of Text! I've been re-reading the most recent chapters, and I have to admit that Katou's "admiration" of Kuroki kinda breaks my immersion a bit. When they go to Aoyama during Golden Week and Katou says she wants to go to college with Kuroki...I'm like, isn't it a bit soon for that? Yeah, that does seem to "come out of the blue." I can only assume that there are things about Katō that have not just been revealed. I do not think it is as some Fanboys want: "hur! hur! LESBIANS!" I think Katō actually likes Tomoko. When she offers Tomoko to fondle her . . . keychain, she confesses that she always wanted to act like "real girls," but she does not confess to Tomoko, and the suggestion that Tomoko wants to pet her Mount Pleasant in the next chapter seems to trigger legitimate embarrassment. There is no, "oh! So THAT is also sexual harassment? Well, I want you to do what you normally do, Tomoko! Bum Chick-a-Bow-Wow!" I know that the readers aren't privy to everything that happens between these characters, but Katou's feelings seem a bit unrealistic for this manga. True. You would not expect the "Hot Glamorous Girl" to want to be a friend with the "Mojyo." But it is fiction and, well, we do not know how popular and happy Katō is. She looks glamorous and all of that, but how many actual friends does she have. I always assumed she had many, but really, it looks like she only has Kaho. And we're not given much of anything to go on, other than some surface-level interactions. I would say that Kuroki and Tanaka have a "stronger" friendship than the one between she and Katou. Oh I would completely agree. You have no indication that Katō has actually talked to Tomoko. Eventually, Yuri and Tomoko "talk" over the chapters. They have confrontations, blah blah, as we know. I guess Katō confessing she wants to mess around a bit safely is a "talk" but it comes out of nowhere to Tomoko and everyone. What does it mean? We do not know. Tomoko does not know. Katou's my favorite character, though. Yeah! Gotta love Class Mom. Though I have always loved Uchi once it started to be clear that she is in denial/embarrassed about her feelings. That is a real issue for "kids," and it is not simple to deal with. To whom does Uchi seek advice? Ogino?! Chapter 152 reveals that she fears her friends will figure out that she has a crush on a girl. Blah . . . blah . . . blah Wall of Text but it is a problem that makes Kotomi unable to talk to Tomoki seem minor. Of course, if Sasaki and Kaho stick around...there are just too many cuties in this manga! I will say this. Fūka was drawn as a striking beauty without the Huge Anime Bambi Eyes. She just looked depressed. So finally we have her speak and interact. What do we get? A girl with "issues!" Which is kind of fun. Kaho may have less issues, because as the "bored panel" of her having lunch with Katō suggests, she either got over her surprise regarding Katō's offer to Tomoko, or she knows that Katō does not want to discuss it. Or maybe Kaho is Katō's "Reinfeld" who helps gather her victims!